It was confirmed the C130 cargo plane the jets avoided was not an RAF plane

One of the planes was being flown by an “inexperienced” pilot who was wearing night-vision goggles for the first time.

And experts revealed the incident could have resulted in disaster had he listened to his fellow pilot’s instructions to pull up as they passed the cargo plane.

Investigators into the February incident said: “Members thought that it had been fortuitous that the No2 pilot had not assimilated the climb instruction issued by his leader because, if he had, this would probably have resulted in him climbing towards the C130.

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“This was clearly a worrying incident with a potentially catastrophic outcome.”

The findings continued: “This was an alarming incident which has been subject to a thorough internal investigation.

“As a tactical pair, the formation leader takes responsibility for the avoidance of other traffic, in this case the lead was also working both the Air Traffic frequency as well as the ground controller’s frequency due to the fact the number two was inexperienced.”